Historic Background of the Barbee-Williams Farmhouse
in the Carpenter Historic District
The Carpenter Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 2000. The nomination cited two applicable National Register criteria:
Criterion A: Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.
Criterion C: Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.
According to the nomination form, authored by Kelly Lally Molloy, the Carpenter Historic District "depicts the vital interplay between agriculture and commerce in Wake County’s development," and qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C for its architectural significance and Criterion A for its agricultural and community development significance.
The Carpenter Historic District retains an outstanding collection of commercial, residential, and agricultural buildings that reflect the history of the community and its prominence as a rural commercial center in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Despite the rapid growth and development of Cary and Morrisville at the edges of the community, the District as a whole remains remarkably intact, retaining the integrity of setting, location, design, materials, feeling, and association.
The Barbee-Williams Farm is one of eight farm complexes that, along with the commercial core area of the Carpenter crossroads, comprise the Carpenter Historic District. These farmsteads provide a glimpse of the rural development patterns associated with bright leaf tobacco cultivation in the late 19th and early 20th century. Indicative of the relatively small acreage needed to produce a profitable tobacco crop, these farms are somewhat closely spaced along Morrisville-Carpenter Road. Each complex contains farmhouses of typical Wake County types dating from this period. All of these are one to one-and-a-half stories tall and of frame construction. Most display simple Victorian, Craftsman, or Colonial Revival architectural details. Surrounding these farmhouses are collections of both domestic and agricultural outbuildings. Domestic outbuildings are generally clustered close to the farmhouse itself and include wellhouses, smokehouses, greenhouses, garages, and storage buildings. Agricultural outbuildings are mostly associated with tobacco cultivation and are generally located beyond the domestic complex. These include traditional log-and-frame curing barns, frame grading houses, and frame packhouses. Other agricultural outbuildings include barns for animal and hay storage, equipment sheds, and a variety of storage sheds.
The Barbee-Williams Farmhouse was built around 1900. It is a one-story, frame house topped by a triple-A roof, covered with plain weatherboard siding, and has an L-shaped rear addition. The structure exhibits simple Victorian details, such as a wrap-around porch with turned posts and sawn brackets and patterned shingles and decorative vents in the gables. Windows are two-over-two sash. The Barbee-Williams Farmhouse is representative of the simply-finished frame houses built and favored by Wake County and North Carolina farmers and townspeople alike during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Because it is a contributing structure to a National Register Historic District, the Barbee-Williams Farmhouse is a "certified historic structure" eligible for both federal and state rehabilitation tax credits, if used for an income-producing purpose. The Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit provides a dollar-for-dollar reduction of federal income tax owed equal to 20 percent of the cost of rehabilitation. The North Carolina Historic Preservation Tax Credits, effective since January 1, 1998, have created one of the most successful historic preservation incentive programs in the nation. In the first two years alone, over $22 million dollars in construction activity was generated for 250 privately owned structures. When combining the federal and state tax credits, the cost of a certified rehabilitation of an income-producing historic structure can be reduced by 40%. These credits provide an attractive incentive for private investors interested in adapting historic buildings to modern uses.
There are two non-profit organizations that would be interested in accepting the Barbee-Williams Farmhouse. The Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina, or Preservation/NC, based in Raleigh, purchases or accepts donations of endangered historic properties. These properties are then marketed and sold with protective covenants to protect the structure’s architectural integrity. Proceeds go to P/NC’s revolving fund, which are used to purchase other threatened properties statewide. Over the last 30 years, P/NC has preserved hundreds of historic resources.
Capital Area Preservation, Inc. (CAP) functions similarly to P/NC, but with a specific focus on Wake County historic resources. CAP representatives have expressed their interest in the Barbee-Williams Farmhouse. They are willing to discuss a mutually acceptable marketing plan with the owners of the house. Specific details of such a plan would be tailored to the interests of both parties and could include, for example, a time limit on the marketing period, particulars on a landscaped buffer between the house and the new development, or even sharing of the sale proceeds. Because of the large up-front costs, CAP could not accept the structure for off-site relocation.